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Early ARM processors had a combined 26-bit program counter and status register, rather than separate 32-bit program counter and status registers.
For a time processors had both 26-bit and 32-bit modes, with the former being phased out by ARM. In October 2002 RISC OS 5 was released using only the 32-bit mode, required because 26-bit mode processors were no longer available – the last being the StrongARM used in the RiscPC.
Most software written in BBC BASIC has no compatibility issues, and in many cases software written in C merely requires a recompilation of the source code, where available. However, some software is reliant on features specific to 26-bit mode and needs updating before it will work.
A RISC OS 5 ROM upgrade is available to install on real hardware (Risc PC/A7000/A7000+). The following installation notes will allow you to run RISC OS 5 under emulation on an Apple Mac running macOS.
A development build of RPCEmu 0.9.3 for 64-bit versions of macOS is now available. This build is known to work on macOS Mojave (10.14), macOS Catalina (10.15) and macOS Big Sur (11.2).
If you have an older version of RPCEmu already installed, see Upgrading from an older version of RPCEmu below.
Note 1: RISC OS 5 beta versions are updated frequently with nightly builds from the Git repository but may contain bugs, so important data should only be trusted to the stable installs.
Note 2: RPCEmu is deemed alpha quality by its authors, which rather negates any comments about stable installations in note 1. In practice, many people use RPCEmu without issue.
Note 3: If you choose to use a beta ROM it is best to use the matching beta HardDisc4 as changes in the ROM may require specific disc based components.
The explanation over on the RPCEmu web site works reliably on the NAT option, but the bridging option is untested.
Emulator configuration
Run RPCEmu and open the networking configuration (up on title bar)
RISC OS Networking Configuration
When RISC OS has rebooted, click the “Menu” (middle) button on the mouse over the Switcher icon (cog on the right of the icon bar – bottom right of screen) and the select the Configure option in the menu.
Testing
After the reboot press Ctrl and F12 simultaneously to reach a task window showing a command prompt.
After starting RPCEmu, you may discover that “mouse capture” mode is not working properly. To fix this, proceed as follows:
Key marking | Character generated |
---|---|
§ | ` |
` | \ |
\ | # |
" | @ |
@ | " |
Go to Mac “System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard” and tick “Use F1, F2 etc. keys as standard function keys”. Also, go to “System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts” and check that you don’t have anything mapped to F12. You may also need to move (or disable) some or all of Ctrl-F1 to Ctrl-F8, as they can prevent the use of the corresponding keyboard shortcuts in RISC OS.
If you have an extended keyboard (with numeric keypad):
Also with the extended keyboard, move some of the Mac keyboard shortcuts so that they don’t clash with RISC OS usage. A suggested layout is:
Function | Old shortcut | New shortcut |
---|---|---|
Mission Control | F9 | F16 |
Application windows | F10 | F17 |
Show desktop | F11 | F18 |
Move left a space | Ctrl-leftarrow | Ctrl-Opt-leftarrow |
Move right a space | Ctrl-rightarrow | Ctrl-Opt-rightarrow |
RISC OS uses a special format of ZIP archive: if these are unpacked under macOS, the individual files will lose their filetypes. The correct process is to copy the ZIP file into the HostFS folder inside the RPCEmu data directory and unpack it from RISC OS.
Tip: Go to Safari preferences and untick “Open safe files after downloading”. This will prevent macOS from unpacking the ZIP file.1
1 If you prefer to leave the option ticked, the ZIP file is moved to the Bin after unpacking, so can still be moved to the HostFS folder.